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Eastern Europe’s crops last year in August, we the worst for many years and prices have essentially doubled in the last 5 months. The Russian crop was almost 80% less than the previous year ( 2012 ) and sparked the rally. Indian coriander is available at lower prices, but the volatile oil is poor and guarantees on pesticides limited.

Most Indian spices are harvested in February and the crop outlook looks generally good. With good tonnages coming up, most buyers are holding off purchasing until prices seem to have eased back far enough. Speculation says that turmeric is looking short and prices will rise: coriander is shorter this year and prices will remain high: Cumin is going to be a big crop and prices will crash.

Pepper prices reached an all-time high at the end of 2013, to then ease back in early January by about 10% to 15%. The estimate for Vietnam’s new crop towards the end of February, looks set to be a record 145,000 mt or more. With such a good crop for the third year in a row, speculators discounted the current stock and the market fell from highs in December. Currently, the market has bounced by around $200 per mt, as…

The Guatemalan and Indian crops started in October 2013 and tonnages are again large for the third consecutive year. Prices Guatemala in November reduced to the lowest levels for almost 8 years, however at the end of January there was speculation that the crop was not as large as original estimated and prices appear to be currently increasing. The incidence of “Thripps”, an insect that bores into the pods, is again on the increase this year. Currently suppliers are withdrawn…

24th June 2013 The recent court decision in India to temporarily ban the import of white poppy seed, has caused chaos in the fragile trade between sellers ( Turkey ) and buyers ( India ). India in a normal year, can import up to 15 to 20,000 mt, so is essentially the only major buyer of White Poppy Seed internationally. The stats are roughly: Turkish crop 2012: 4000 mt produced with a 15,000 mt carry over from 2011 2013: 30,000…